The LSU student email system is changing Nov. 2, and students who don’t make the transition will lose access to emails sent to their old accounts next semester. Current Google Mail-based TigerMail accounts will change to the new Microsoft Outlook-based LSUMail.
TigerMail accounts will remain active until Feb. 2, 2016.
Students have until then to make the transition, a decision made by LSU Information Technology Services. Email addresses do not have to be changed, so students can keep their current @tigers.lsu.edu domain. The new mailboxes are automatically created for students, but ITS encourages making the switch before the final date to ease the transition.
The decision to make the transition date Nov. 2 was based on the low amount of emails sent during this time of year, said Senior Vice Provost Jane Cassidy. Early in the semester, students receive emails about financial aid and football tickets, which could potentially not come through if students were not to make the transition by then.
Sheri Thompson, IT communications and planning officer, said the decision to move from one email provider to another was a plan in the works for years. She said teachers and faculty have used Microsoft Outlook for a while now, and it was more cost efficient to bring students to Outlook as well.
“Due to our Microsoft contract, students will now have the ability to have Microsoft Office on their phones and tablets for that mobile access they didn’t have before,” Thompson said. “The way we do that is by giving the students their own email accounts.”
LSU faculty and staff who are alumni must also make the transition from TigerMail to LSUMail.
Students who never set up a TigerMail account and had their LSU emails forwarding to another inbox must also make the transition, Thompson said. They can create their new LSUMail addresses to forward to a separate email.
Cassidy said the Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee was made aware of the transition, but no ITS proposals were required because the transition has no cost to students.
“This is something that is going to be benefitting students,” Thompson said.